Funding

Category archives for Funding

One of the points about science funding I’ve tried to make over the years (we have been blogging a long time, haven’t we?) is that the overheads and indirect costs associated with federal grants drive a lot of university decisions–there’s a lot of money there. But this funding also has significant macroeconomic effects, especially in…

Like Atrios, I don’t believe this–nor would any person who takes mass transit or lives in (or near) an urban area: Last month, I spoke to Christina Romer, Larry Summers and Jared Bernstein on this question. The three of them were arguably the administration’s most persistent and consistent advocates for more stimulus. But they all…

This is why all the concern about the fake crisis of the U.S. budget deficit is so harmful–it has real effects on people’s lives, including scientists: Both Republican and Democratic proposals would cut more than US$1 trillion in spending over a decade, amounting to a budget reduction of at least $100 billion per year. Nature…

As with history in general, I suppose the victors write–or rewrite–economic history too. One of the arguments for balancing budgets that’s floating around is that Clinton got us a surplus, times were good, and therefore, we should do it again. Of course, things were better for some people, including those at the bottom (which is…

This post might have to get filed under “careful what you wish for”, but Martin Robbins’ latest column about the cozy relationship between science journalists and the scientists they cover seems to have struck a nerve, if The Twitter is any indication. Here’s a good snippet: Churnalism is a real problem in science reporting, to…

A while ago, I discussed Republican Senator Tom Coburn’s NSF snipe hunt. Well, the EU has a doozy of an actual research-related scandal: Italian authorities and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in Brussels, Belgium, have confirmed that they are prosecuting members of a large network accused of pocketing more than €50 million (US$72 million) in…

There’s been a lot of discussion about the report released by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) alleging waste and fraud by the National Science Foundation (NSF), including posts by Dr. O, Steve Silberman, Namnezia, NeuroDojo, The Prodigal Academic, and Stephanie Pappas. The first thing to realize about Tom Coburn is that he’s a full-blown wackaloon–in 2004,…

The Wall Street Journal reports an estimate of the economic impact of the Human Genome Project (italics mine): Of the $3.8 billion federal funding for the human-genome project, $2.8 billion originated at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and the rest at the Department of Energy. That $3.8 billion, along with subsequent capital provided by…

By way of DrugMonkey, we come across NIH’s new working group that “will examine the future of the biomedical research workforce in the United States.” It’s headed by Princeton’s Shirley Tilghman, who in a recent interview, said: At the root of the problem is the fact that we are overproducing Ph.D.s. As a consequence, there…

Doug Natelson raises a good question about when data should be made publicly available: How much public funding triggers the need to make something publicly available? For example, suppose I used NSF funding to buy a coaxial cable for $5 as part of project A. Then, later on, I use that coax in project B,…